


Will you hold my hand?

by Deminia



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Edward Elric Needs a Hug, Eventual Fluff, M/M, Not Beta Read, Slow Burn, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:35:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22071874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deminia/pseuds/Deminia
Summary: One of the few things Ed remembers actually learning in the small school Al and he attended in Risembool was this: almost every person is born with two soulmates, a platonic soulmate and a romantic soulmate.Ed considered this to be nonsense, you shouldn’t need someone else.
Relationships: Edward Elric/Roy Mustang
Comments: 3
Kudos: 69





	Will you hold my hand?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Vampiricalthorns](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vampiricalthorns/gifts).



One of the few things Ed remembers actually learning in the small school Al and he attended in Risembool was this: almost every person is born with two soulmates, a platonic soulmate and a romantic soulmate. The latter wasn’t very interesting yet for little kids, especially because even if your right hands touched every day from the day you were both born, the bond itself wouldn't trigger until you were both ready. Generally people were ready in their late teens, so the class of five and six year olds didn’t care much. Even if the romantic soulmate was the one you should marry. The platonic soulmate though, that one could be found from the moment both were born. All you needed to do to find your platonic soulmate was to touch their left hand with yours and you’d know straight away if this person would be your best friend, stick with you through thick and thin and support you in becoming the best you.

Ed considered this to be nonsense, you shouldn’t need someone else to better yourself. The other kids though didn’t agree and spent a while touching everyone’s left hand with theirs to find their platonic soulmate. Al joined in happily and surprised the other kids by explaining that he and Ed weren’t platonic soulmates. Al claimed this was because they were already brothers. Ed silently believed it was because he wasn’t good enough for Al. After all, all the kids liked Al but aside from Winry they avoided Ed. Not that Ed had time for them anyway, he had to take care of Al, he promised he would and he intended to keep that promise.

When Ed was eleven his secret belief became a secret truth. Al lost his entire body because Ed believed himself to be better than all the alchemists before them. He crawled over to a suit of armor, biting back tears of pain, and went back straight away to the Gate to salvage what he could, willing to pay any price, even if he knew himself to not be worth the same as Al. The gate took his right arm, a soul bond as payment for binding a soul. 

From then on restoring Al to his body became Ed’s sole objective and for four years he was able to forget about the matter of soulmates. But then Winry found her soulmate in Rush Valley, an annoying pickpocket named Paninya. It was like Ed had been thrown face first into the freezing waters of reality. These four years they’d traveled around and met so many people, and every single one of them could have been Al’s platonic soulmate and they’d never know unless they met again. It was even worse when only a few days later Ed met his own platonic soulmate, a stubborn gluttonous leech of a prince called Ling Yao. Their hands touching had been an accident. Like most people in the military Ed made a point of wearing gloves, to Al he claimed it was so they wouldn’t realise his arm was automail but in reality it was to prevent himself from finding his own platonic soulmate, whoever they were they were not as important as Al. However his arm had taken a beating in the fight with Greed and Ed sacrificed it in the fight with Ling’s body guard Lan Fan. The same fight in which his left glove got ripped and with only one hand Ed hadn’t had time yet to fix it when Ling grabbed him by it. 

Ed had never hated himself as much as he had in that moment, not only had he ruined Al’s chances of finding his soulmates, he’d just had to find his own. At least the prince was annoying enough that Ed didn’t have to fight himself to push him away. Not that the jerk stayed away; he even broke into Ed’s hotel room and helped himself to the room service, at Ed’s expense, well okay technically the Amestrian military’s expense but still the point stood. It wasn’t until Ling proved himself useful against the homunculi that Ed was forced to admit to himself a small amount of grudging respect for him. Hell, he even ate Ed’s boiled boot soup without too much of a fuss. Of course right as Ed was willing to consider the possibility of becoming friends with Ling, the asshole didn’t even try fighting against becoming a homunculus himself, despite knowing what they were made of. It stung, Ed had never held much stock in the belief that your platonic soulmate would always support you and stand by your side and whatever, but he had thought that Ling would have at least not sided with the enemy. 

Not that he had time to deal with this anyway, Father had been able to block their alchemy, but not that of Scar and the Xingese girl, Mei or something. He needed to find them and find out why they had been able to use theirs, without alchemy he doubted he would stand a chance against that creep and while Father was still around it would not be safe to bring back Al’s body. Even if it didn’t look like Al’s body would last that much longer in the gate Ed had to hope he could hold on until it was safe to bring him back. His first stop was the library, but it had nothing on Xingese alkahestry. Thankfully Mustang found out somehow the girl had gone north, one day Ed would figure out how the man had eyes everywhere, for now he was just grateful he sent Armstrong to let him know, and he even got a letter of introduction to his sister at Briggs. 

Of course the north turned into a complete shitstorm. While they had been able to meet up with Scar eventually, everything else had gone probably the worst way possible. Not only did Winry get used as a hostage by Kimblee and then as a fake hostage by Scar, though the lightness of the northern automail was nice, they’d had to split up. Not that splitting up had helped much when Kimblee still ended up dropping a tower on him. Ed supposed he should be glad Al didn’t get to see him impaled and nearly dead, or using his own soul to save his life. Part of him regretted having to do this, but then he reminded himself it wasn’t as if he mattered. His platonic soulmate had betrayed him and joined the enemy and without his right arm he wouldn’t have a romantic one. All that mattered was getting Al his body back and making sure he was set to live the rest of his life in happiness. At least the Gorilla and Lion King decided they were better off with him and got him safely to a doctor. 

Ed’s recovery was slow and it wasn’t until they were found and forced to go on the run that he was ‘allowed’ to leave. By then he was fairly certain Al would have done everything that could be done in Liore so they needed a different place to meet up. He hoped Al would remember the shack Mustang had in the forest near Central. As a fugitive it wouldn’t really be safe for Ed to hang out inside cities after all and it was likely Al was in a similar situation. Sadly he didn’t meet up with Al in the shack but instead bumped into Ling in his new homunculus form. For a lack of any better alternatives he decided to stick with the homunculus who’d now apparently also abandoned Father. 

They slowly made their way to Risembool, where people hated the military but liked and knew Ed. It’d be the safest place for their group. During their journey Ed and Ling found out that even when Ling was in charge of the body the soulbond was no longer triggering and wasn’t that just typical. What also was typical was that they’d just barely made it to Risembool and started to relax a little when Winry returned and gave them their next destination. Where he at least got to punch Hohenheim in the face so Ed supposed it wasn’t all bad. 

When Ed found out the truth from Hohenheim about everything a cold weight settled in his stomach. If Ed and Ling’s soulbond had been destroyed by Ling now having a philosopher’s stone in his body... what did his mother and father have? Were they soulmates but couldn’t feel it? Had they felt the connection but was it a lie? Had they just not been soulmates and not cared? Ed wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer. There were more pressing matters anyway so he put it to the back of his mind to maybe bother Hohenheim about later once things had settled and there was time. There would be time. He wasn’t going to let the bastard abandon Al again. But first they’d have to take care of Father and his ’Promised Day’.

The promised day had not gone as expected, not that Ed had known what to expect, just that it wasn’t this. Not that it was all bad, while people on their side had died, even people he knew, their losses were relatively minor considering just what they had been up against, or so Ed kept telling himself. Al had his body back, he’d even found his platonic soulmate in Mei. Mustang had lost his sight but had still managed to pull some strings so Al was allowed to stay at the military hospital instead of being moved to a public one while he was still weak. Al had his body back! Marcoh had visited Mustang and offered him his sight back, which Mustang accepted provided Marcoh heal Havoc’s spine first. Ed wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about that; Mustang had not willingly performed human transmutation, but the stone was still made of people’s souls. Al had his body back! Greed had died, but Ling had not and without the homunculus present their soulbond was once again back and Ling had agreed to never mention the temporary loss of it to Al. Ed had given up his alchemy, but it was to get Al’s body back and he’d succeeded so that was okay. 

Hohenheim had left again to Risembool but Ed supposed that was fine because he and Al would head back to Risembool as well and he could punch Hohenheim with his right hand, which Al had gotten back for him, though Ed wasn’t yet sure how he felt about that. Havoc was set to arrive in Central the next day, but Al was ready to go home and so they left before Mustang could see again. Al had allowed Mustang to touch his face and arms for it to feel more real that Al was now in his own body again and had then insisted Ed allow Mustang to feel his arm because “just hearing about it isn’t enough brother!” It had been weird as his right arm still felt everything more strongly than bis left, but thankfully Mustang hadn’t taken too long just shortly held Ed’s hand in both of his. 

The train journey back to Risembool was hard on both of them, despite being one of the most smooth train rides Ed had been on. Al got tired easily and Ed’s right arm hurt easily, especially around where the metal from his automail was still embedded in his body. Risembool itself was a nice welcome quiet break from how busy everything had been the past few months and Ed was glad for the chance to unwind, even if Hohenheim had abandoned them again by dying before they had a chance to become a family and Ed was very angry at him on Al’s behalf. Winry checked out his arm and lamented that she wouldn’t be able to remove the metal because it was practically fused to his bones but was glad for him and Al on getting back what they had. 

The only thing that upset Ed was that Al seemed to be avoiding using alchemy because Ed could no longer use it. Yes, Ed missed his alchemy greatly, more than he had originally expected he could feel its loss constantly. But that didn’t mean Al had to hold back. So Ed came up with a plan, they would split up. Al would head to the east, to Xing and possibly their neighbours, to learn what he could about alkahestry and whatever other interesting alchemy he could find and Ed would head west and do the same. Then when they were done they would meet up again and combine their knowledge. Al was eager to see Mei again and so was easy to convince, though he did insist Ed at least write a letter for him to deliver to Ling. Ed grudgingly did so, said his goodbyes to everyone, also because Al insisted, and set off to Creta. 


End file.
